From SXSW: McConaughey interview

Our correspondent has her festival highlight, and also sees a good film by SDSU grad

Matthew McConaughey arrives at the New York Film Critics Circle awards dinner at the Crimson Club on Monday Jan. 7, 2013 in New York. McConaughey won the award for best supporting actor for his performances in "Bernie," and "Magic Mike." (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)
— Evan Agostini/Invision/AP

Matthew McConaughey arrives at the New York Film Critics Circle awards dinner at the Crimson Club on Monday Jan. 7, 2013 in New York. McConaughey won the award for best supporting actor for his performances in "Bernie," and "Magic Mike." (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)
/ Evan Agostini/Invision/AP

AUSTIN, Texas  Sleep is hard to come by at SXSW, so it seemed especially punishing to lose an hour of it when the clocks sprang forward as the festival entered its third day. Bleary-eyed and over caffeinated, I rushed to the Four Seasons hotel for my morning interview with Austin’s very own leading man, Matthew McConaughey, there to promote “Mud,” yet another film in his recent string of triumphs (“Killer Joe,” “Bernie,” “Magic Mike,” “The Paperboy”) that have justifiably redefined his career.

Waiting with the publicist in the narrow hotel hallway for my cue to enter the interview suite, I was struck by the extreme anticipatory quiet. It reminded me of scenes in “The West Wing” when visitors are swiftly ushered in and out of the Oval Office for their precious five minutes with the President. When Joseph Gordon-Levitt, in town for the premiere of his directorial debut “Don Jon” (covered in my next update), strode past us with a friendly “Good morning,” it only felt more surreal.

About three minutes before entering the suite, the publicist confirmed who was waiting for me inside - McConaughey and “Mud” director Jeff Nichols. This was news to me as I’d been told to prepare for a one-on-one conversation with McConaughey. But I was thrilled nonetheless. Nichols made Hollywood take notice with his 2011 independent film “Take Shelter,” and “Mud,” which he also wrote, will most certainly keep his profile on the rise. The story of an adolescent boy’s friendship with a mysterious fugitive (McConaughey) he finds living on a small island in the middle of the river is both tender and true, not to mention beautifully photographed and acted, so I was more than thrilled to have the opportunity to talk to both the director and star about the process of bringing the tale to life.

McConaughey, immaculately dressed in a blue button-down and fedora, and the baby-faced Nichols, in an Austin casual shirt and tie, enjoy a friendly rapport, which made for a relaxed conversation rather than a transactional interview. Though McConaughey’s been swimming with the big fish far longer than Nichols, both men are in fresh stages of their careers, full of excitement and ideas -- and the all-important clout to bring them to fruition. The 20-minute conversation has been the highlight of my festival experience, and I will share more of what we talked about closer to the film’s April 26 release.

Next it was a rush out the door to my first film of the day, “Short Term 12,” premiering at the famous Alamo Drafthouse Cinema a few blocks away. Directed by SDSU film school graduate Destin Daniel Cretton, whose film “I Am Not a Hipster,” shot in and around San Diego’s independent music scene, premiered at SXSW in 2012, “Short Term 12” is about a young woman (Brie Larsen) who works in a residential facility for troubled kids caught in foster system limbo. Cretton, who also wrote the film, does a wonderful job of bringing us inside this emotionally charged workplace and he gets some striking performances out of his adult and juvenile actors. The film is in competition at the festival and, based on the buzz, has a good shot at a prize.

I spent the afternoon in the comfortable press lounge set up by the Fandango folks. While I worked and recharged the batteries on my various gadgets (recharging stations are more desirable than free food and drinks at SXSW), an occasional actor would arrive to shoot an interview with Fandango host Dave Karger. The first guest was Brian Geraghty (“Flight”), there to promote his film “Kilimanjaro,” followed by Paul Walker (“The Fast and the Furious”) to talk about the Hurricane Katrina-themed film, “Hours.” Easily attracting the most onlookers outside the mini-studio’s plexiglass walls was Joseph Gordon-Levitt and his “Don Jon” co-star Tony Danza. Danza and Gordon-Levitt shared the screen nearly twenty years ago in “Angels in the Outfield” and, based on the amount of laughing and teasing going on in-studio, their bond seems to have held firm over the years.

Soon it was time to head back to the Paramount Theater for the world premiere of “Downloaded,” a documentary about the rise and fall of the online music sharing service Napster. Known primarily as Keanu Reeves’ teenaged counterpart in the “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure” series, director Alex Winter took the stage to introduce the film that took him nearly a decade to produce. The time and effort was worthwhile for “Downloaded” is both an engrossing play-by-play of how two teenagers, Shawn Fanning and Sean Parker, brought the music industry to its knees with their simple yet revolutionary computer program, as well as an insightful commentary on the potential — and pitfalls — of technology in modern life.

The film was enthusiastically received by the tech-savvy SXSW crowd and Winter looked both thrilled and relieved as he took the stage for post-screening Q&A. Adding even more excitement to the moment, Winter was joined onstage by Parker and Fanning, who both expressed some degree of mortification at seeing their awkward and endearingly innocent young selves on the big screen. While they can claim success at this stage in their lives, especially Parker who’s raked in many millions through sites like Spotify and Facebook (Justin Timberlake portrayed him in “The Social Network”), it was sweet to see that they still interact with each other just as they did in their youth.

After the screening, I met up with my San Diego colleagues, Rashmi Gandhi and Joseph Djan from Moviewallas.com, and Lance Carter from DailyActor.com, to sample a few of the parties taking place around festive downtown.